Match Reports
21/01/06
South Saxons 3 4-5 Men's 5th XI
Brighton 5s enjoy playing South Saxons 3s as the games are always tight affairs and this game was no exception. Once again Brighton were without the inspirational midfield/drinking talent of Bondy, and with Swampy moving to his more familiar sweeper role, Joe wells stepped
into defensive centre half role. Their was also a debut for Sam Parkin who was looking for a win to celebrate his recent 16th birthday. Brighton
played in a change strip of Party in the Park yellow much to College's displeasure !
The game started well for Brighton, with some nice attacking play, with Benson and Monk combining well and forcing a couple of saves, South Saxons were also maintaining the occasional attack. On 12 minutes Benson picked up a loose ball on the 25 yard line and danced around the South Saxons defence before cleverly flicking the ball in from a tight angle. The next 10 minutes was pretty much all Brighton. Until on 25 minutes when South Saxons scored
from there first short corner and then minutes later the Brighton defence was dumbstruck as out of nowhere South Saxons made it 2-1. Was College's pre match warning of yellow shirts equal defeat for Brighton going to be true ?! HT 2-1 to South Saxons.
The second half started well with Brighton playing some great pressing hockey and within 5 minutes they were level when Nathan drag flicked a short corner over a prostate keeper. Nearly immediately from the restart Benson picked up the ball to score his second and he then completed his hat trick as he burst into the D and extend the lead to 4-2. However it was not all one-way traffic as College had to save off the line and Matt and Jamie made some vital clearances during some dangerous counter attacks. South Saxons then made it 4-3 when a mix up between Joe and keeper Alex led to the keeper tripping up over Joes stick with the player in light blue profitting and making it 4-3. With 8 minutes to go Brighton felt victory was safe as Joe Wells picked up the ball following a break down of a short corner to hit a thunderbolt from the top of the D into the back of the net. 5-3 ! But the last 5 minutes had much excitement firstly the red mist escended on Swampy who threw his stick down in disgust at a umpiring decision and his own
mistake. Amazingly the umpire let him stay on the pitch as no yellow was shown.
Next South Saxons scored a 4th goal with there 15 year old Aston causing all the trouble. Then Benson was yellow carded when he used foul language, meaning Brighton had to soak up 3 minutes of pressure with only 10 men.
Brighton held firm and won the day 5-4 to stay top of the league and in fact extend their lead at the top due to EG's failure to beat Worthing. Next week the 5's entertain Horsham at the Fortress.
Team: Nicholas, Ray, Allum, Carter, Sale, Omran, Monk, Wells, Benson, Robertson, Davis, Parkin.
Scorers: Benson (3), Monk, Wells (J)